This month the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung relating to their first attempt at AR smartglasses. Back in March, Huawei launched new smartphones in Paris and more importantly announced their first generation smartglasses were coming this summer.
Samsung notes in their patent filing that one of their key chips used in their AR smartglasses is an ARM processor. If that's the case with Huawei, their smartglasses could be in jeopardy being that ARM has suspended all business with them back in May.
However, Huawei may be able to work around that problem considering that they've partnered with Gentle Monster in creating the glasses. If lucky, Gentle Monster won't be on the U.S. Blacklist of Huawei suppliers.
Samsung's AR Smartglasses Invention
In describing their smartglasses invention, Samsung notes that one or more embodiments of the present invention relates to foldable smartglasses wherein the temple portion of the wearable device may include a projector and a prism, and the temple portion may be constructed to be foldable with respect to the frame of the device, thereby allowing the device to be easily being stored.
The folding-styled smartglasses are designed for easy repairs by being able to replace the temple portion of glasses.
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a folding-type wearable electronic device which recognizes when the device is folded or unfolded, thereby reducing electric current consumption of the device. For example, the optical system of the wearable device may be automatically turned off when the device is folded.
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure may include: a transparent member; a housing coupled to the transparent member in a rotatable manner via a hinge portion, such that the housing is foldable in a designated direction with respect to the transparent member; a projector at least partially disposed in the housing; and an optical transferring member configured to guide light emitted from the projector to the transparent member when the housing is unfolded with respect to the transparent member in an unfolded state. When folded, the projector is turned on or off depending on detections made by a magnetic sensor of the glasses.
Below you'll see Samsung's main patent figures illustrating the basic design of the smartglasses. Considering that it's not a design patent, the design could materially change when going to market. As a utility patent, Samsung is simply illustrating the key parts of the glasses.
Samsung's patent FIG. 5 above illustrates the optical path of an optical signal emitted from the projector #150 may be changed primarily via the optical transferring member #152, and may be guided to be incident on the first optical reflection member #154.
The first optical reflection member may include a first grating structure. For example, the first grating structure #154 may be made of a plurality of diffraction gratings.
Samsung's patent FIG. 6 above is a perspective view illustrating structures of a fixing device and a folding/unfolding recognition device.
More specifically, the fixing device may include first and second magnetic bodies m1 and m2 which are highlighted. The first magnetic body m1 may be one or more magnetic members provided in the first housing #130 and may have a first polarity. The second magnetic body m2 may be one or more magnetic members provided in the transparent member frame #120 and may have a second polarity so that the first magnetic body m1 and the second magnetic body m2 generate an attractive force. When the first housing is in the unfolding state with respect to the transparent member frame, the unfolding state may be maintained by the attractive force generated by the fixing device.
Samsung's patent FIG. 8 below is a block diagram of an electronic device in a network environment.
A few of the parts of the system of FIG. 8 above worth noting include the sensor module #876 which may include a gesture sensor, a gyro sensor, an atmospheric pressure sensor, a magnetic sensor, an acceleration sensor, a grip sensor, a proximity sensor, a color sensor, an Infrared (IR) sensor, a biometric sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, or an illuminance sensor. The biometrics could include a fingerprint sensor.
Another part worth noting is the camera module #880 which could capture still or video images. According to an embodiment, the camera module may include one or more lenses, image sensors, image signal processors, or flashes.
The processor 820 may include a microprocessor or any suitable type of processing circuitry, such as one or more general-purpose processors (e.g., ARM-based processors), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD), an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU), a video card controller, etc.
The system may also include a power management module, a battery, a communication module #890, a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) #896, or an antenna module #897. The speaker may be used for general purposes, such as playing multimedia or receiving incoming calls.
Lastly, the input device #850 may include a microphone, a mouse, or a keyboard.
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Samsung filed for this patent in the U.S. in Q1 2019. It was filed in Korea one year earlier. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published Samsung's patent filing earlier this month.
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